They got the band back together.

Formed in 1975 while students at Hempfield High School, members of the group Andora reunited in 2022, and it feels so good.

Andora consists of Lancaster Township resident Thomas Richards, who sings and plays the rhythm guitar; Ron Sharpe of Millersville, who plays the bass and sings; East Earl resident David Chambers, who does vocals and plays the guitar; and drummer Curt Ruhl of Denver.

Richards and Chambers started playing music together in East Petersburg when they were approximately 10 years old. "We had the entire band packed in a little red wagon," said Richards. "It was one drum, one cymbal, (Chambers') amp, and a guitar."

Sharpe and Ruhl joined about six years later. "I don't know how we all got together, but I do remember that the first big thing we played was a Battle of the Bands at Hempfield High School," Richards said. "We had a very unusual rehearsal spot. We rented a storage unit at a place called Stowaway. I think they had one plug for power, no heat. But we'd rehearsed there, and we rehearsed at somebody's house. We played a Battle of the Bands, and we won."

The group settled on the name Andora, but the details are a bit fuzzy. Sharpe pointed out that on the television show "Bewitched," Samantha's mother's name is Endora. There is a country on the Iberian Peninsula named Andora. "Somehow we got to talking and came up with Andora instead of Endora," said Sharpe.

Andora performed together for 18 months. Then, as Journey sang in 1983, the members went their "separate ways." Some members even sold their equipment while others performed in different bands.

The quartet mostly kept in contact, and Richards reached out to his bandmates after seeing an advertisement for an open mic night. As Jake Blues said to his brother, Elwood, in the movie "Blues Brothers," "Hey, man, we're getting the band back together."

"Once you've played, you always have the bug to play," Richards said. "Once you perform, you always want to perform. I thought maybe we could get together for the open mic night."

He went to work. "I knew where Dave was, so I called Dave, and I knew how to get hold of Ron," Richards recalled. The three met at the Hurricane Grill & Tavern in Columbia, fitting since Andora has been rocking people like a hurricane ever since. "We decided on three or four songs that we still remembered, and we played," said Richards. "It was fun as usual, and then the phone calls started. Do we want to do this again?"

The answer to that question was the same as the correct response to "Who sang 'Owner of a Lonely Heart?'" - Yes.

Andora traveled to the beat of a different drum(mer) during the first show back. "When we did the first open mic, we hadn't contacted Curt yet," Chambers said. "We didn't know where he was, so we had a stand-in drummer just for that open mic night. Then we decided we're going to get hold of Curt and we're all going to get together."

Andora members met at Chambers' house to review music, brainstorm, and play some tunes. Ruhl didn't have his drum set with him, so he used baby toys as shakers to keep rhythm.

Sharpe said the band members agreed they would go back to their (grass) roots. They concluded, "Let's live for today, but play music from our youth. "We wanted the band to be nothing but the '70s, what we experienced in our high school days," Sharpe said. "We did incorporate a few of the songs that we played back then, but we wanted to be nothing solely but '70s classic rock, because that was basically what we listened to during our teenage years. We've stuck to that, and our followers know when they come, they're going to take a trip down memory lane and they're going to hear '70s classic rock. We try to give them all the songs that are sing along and danceable. You know the lyrics; you can dance to it. You're going to have a good time. Granted, our key audience is 50-plus. But I think classic rock spans the generations."

Richards added, "It's been said of the band that we are like a time machine."

Some of their equipment remains from the first iteration. Chambers still plays the same 1970 Gibson SG guitar he was gifted by his dad at the age of 14.

Ruhl's father helped him purchase a new set Ludwig blue Vistalite drums. He sold them after the group disbanded. "I wanted to get another set of Vistalites to go back in time, like we did, with our performances. I finally found another set (in Pittsburgh), and that's what we use today. They're getting hard to find. That means a lot to me, those drums."

Andora has monthly shows planned into the spring. "We try to limit it to one performance a month for three reasons," Sharpe said. "One, we hope we can remember enough music to play one performance a month. Two, can our knees take the loading and the unloading for more than one performance a month? There's a lot of gear that we move in and out, even at our age, and that's the other one, our age. If the gig goes past 9:30 (p.m.), we all get sleepy."

Andora will play Friday, Oct. 17, from 8 to 10:30 p.m. at Red Pin Bar & Grill, 1495 Millport Road, Lancaster; Friday, Nov. 21, from 8 p.m. to midnight at Riverside Camping Association, 730 E. Strawberry St., Lancaster; Friday, Jan. 23, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Elizabethtown Moose Lodge, 126 Maytown Road; Friday, Feb. 6, from 8 to 11 p.m. at Ephrata Amvets, 614 S. State St.; Friday, March 20, from 7 to 10 p.m. at New Holland American Legion, 35 S. Hoover Ave.; and Saturday, April 18, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Christiana American Legion, 219 Newport Ave.

Visit the group's Facebook page, "Andora," for additional information.